A Stanford swimmer who has made big splashes for her school made a huge one Thursday night when she won a gold medal at the Rio Olympics in Brazil.
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He finished in 1 minute 54.66, his second-best time after 1 minute 54.23 in Beijing.
In between the history-making swims by Phelps and Manuel, Ryan Murphy extended the USA hold on the 200 backstroke title, winning with a time of 1:53.62. “Just being a black woman myself and to see just someone like me, like the color, is just so incredible and for her to get an Olympic record is better still”.
United States’ gold medal victor Simone Manuel cries during the medal ceremony for the women’s 100-meter freestyle final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Manuel said to BBC News that her win was for the “African-Americans who have been before me and been inspirations”, and “the people who come behind me and get into the sport”.
“No other woman has ever done it and I’m glad she was the first one to break that mold”, said Craig Prince.
Biles won another gold medal in the women’s individual all-around gymnastics competition. It seems incredible that it has taken until 2016 for us to see a black woman win a gold medal in the pool.
At first, it wasn’t clear just what had happened in the women’s 100-meter freestyle at the Summer Olympics in Rio.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, the Olympic 100m butterfly champion who took the bronze in 52.99, was astonished. “I was super surprised and after I stared for a while I realised I was tied with Penny”. “Everyone was shocked that the Campbell sisters weren’t involved”.
But, by Friday, the San Jose Mercury News, a California daily paper, had turned Manuel’s win into a questionable headline, with racist and sexist undertones. “It’s definitely been a long journey these past four years”, reports the Christian Examiner. “I’m just so blessed”.
Not to be outdone, Oleksiak became the first gold medalist in Olympic history to be born in the 21st century as she swept up her fouth medal of the Games. “I’m only 16 so it’s pretty insane to win a gold medal in your first Olympics”, she said.
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The only other ties for first in the Olympic swimming pool were in the 100m freestyle in 1984 and the 50m freestyle in 2000, when Oleksiak was just a few months old.
